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LINCOLN – East Alton-Wood River’s Jayden Ulriich and Civic Memorial’s Maura Niemeier both qualified in two events, while the Roxana 4x800-meter relay team also qualified during the Illinois High School Association girls Class 2A sectional meet Wednesday afternoon at Lincoln High School.
Springfield Southeast won the meet with 130 points, followed by Clinton with 89 points, Pittsfield was third with 64, Springfield Lanphier was fourth with 46, and EAWR finished fifth with 34 points. Roxana and CM tied for seventh with 24 points, Staunton tied with Hillsboro for ninth with 22 points, and Jersey was 11th with 20 points.
The Shells team qualified for next weekend’s state meet by finishing second with a time of 10:49.89, the only area relay team to make it to the state meet.
East Alton-Wood River head girls track and field coach Russ Colona said the fifth-place sectional finish is by far the best the Oilers have done in the sectional.
“The girls have worked hard all season long and this is probably the best girls track and field team we have ever had,’ he said. “We have a young team and I think next year also will be really fun.”
Ulrich won the shot put with a throw of 45’ 7”, and was second in the discus with a toss of 127’ 8”. Niemeier qualified for state in the long jump, finishing second with a distance of 17 feet even, and the triple jump, going 36’ 5.5” in finishing second in the event.
Both Hannah Sechrest of the Oilers and Jackalyn Woelfel of the Eagles qualified in the high jump, with Sechrest going 5’ 3” to finish second, while Woelfel jumped 5’ 1” to qualify for the state meet.
Staunton’s Lydia Roller also qualified in two events, finishing second in the 1,600 meters with a time of 5:12.87, and the 3,200 meters, winning the event at 11:02.43.
In the Class 1A sectional meet held Wednesday at Sparta, Metro-East Lutheran and Father McGivney Catholic tied for 11th with 10 points each, and both schools did not have any qualifiers for state.
The IHSA state track meet will be held next weekend at O’Brien Stadium on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Colin Feeney also contributed to this story.
